So Long, Hitachi

Well, I moved out of my apartment last Friday.  I lasted all of 5 months in Hitachi, but it was a good 5 months and I have no regrets!!  I met a bunch of nice people, got to play around with funny kids at work, and learned some essentials for living in Japan.

For those who I have not been in contact with lately (pretty much everyone), here’s a quick recap of my new plans and how I arrived at them.  Sorry in advance if this post is uninteresting/uninspired, I haven’t been in the writing mood lately, but thought I’d at least provide a little update (for all the fans out there who have been anxiously awaiting).  Anyway, more interesting posts to come later, but for now, here’s the update:

No more English teaching.  Instead, I’m going to try to get a job as a banquet waiter in a hotel that my cousin works at in Shikoku (the smallest of the 4 main islands).  I decided about two months ago that I would rather work a “regular” Japanese job than teach English.  While teaching English is super easy and pays relatively well, it wasn’t doing enough to further my goal of becoming fluent in Japanese.  There just weren’t enough opportunities to speak.  In class I was expected to speak only English, and outside of class many teachers who wanted to talk to me wanted to practice their English.  The whole reason I came to Japan was to be immersed in Japanese, so even if I have to take a huge pay cut, as long as I can survive and learn Japanese, the change of jobs will have been worth it.  And as an MSW, I’m used to making monetary sacrifices for greater goals, so it’s all good.

Before I do all this, however, I’ll be coming back to America for a few weeks (surprise!).  My legitimate excuse is that I need to try to get my Japanese passport so I don’t have to deal with Visa issues when working at the hotel.  My ulterior motives are obviously taco truck and taco bell.  And pizza.  And sushi.  American sushi.  No more of this pure, “taste the true flavor of the fish” business, I want some ridiculously sized roll, preferably deep fried and covered with spicy sauce

Miscellaneous Information

I sometimes write notes to myself about interesting/odd stuff that I think of so I’ll remember it.  Here are a few of those notes (back to bullet point format):

• Smart phones are called “sma-ho” here.  Japanese people like condensing words.  In a related piece of information, sometimes I help coach the girls basketball team.  One day I was demonstrating offensive rebounding with some of the girls.  They were giggling profusely so I stopped and was like “WHAT!?”.  One girl who was laughing like crazy was like, “Geeebu (Gabe)!  Seku-Hara Seku-Hara!”  I was like “huh??”  Then she tried to give the long version… “Sekusu harasumento.”  I paused for a second and worked it out in my head… sekusu harasumento –> seksu harasmento –> sexu harasment –> sexual harassment.  Ohhhkay…  Got it, seku-hara = sexual harassment.  Long story short, I don’t demonstrate offensive rebounding anymore.
• There are a lot of people from the UK here.  So far the best thing I’ve gotten out of that is the phrase, “I can’t be bothered.”  I don’t know why we don’t have a similar phrase in the US?!  It’s super useful for any time when you’re too lazy/disinterested to comply to a request, which, apparently, is often for me.
• Pretend every bow is a hug instead, and you will feel very loved.
• It’s amazing how much money you can save if you don’t drink alcohol.
• Question time in English class:  ”Big or small?”  ”Do you play sex?”  ”Do you play OHHHH?”  ”What did you and Nicole do in Korea… at night?”  ”How many girlfriends do you have?”  I guess Junior High school kids are pretty much the same everywhere…
• My friend told me today that at one of his schools there are three kids who play baseball with a crumpled up piece of paper in the back of the class throughout the entire English class.  The teacher is scared of them.  One time he went in to class and the teacher was locked in the walk-in closet (by the kids), and he had to free him.  Another time he came in and the kids were beating the teacher with brooms!!  What the hell?!?
• Drunk Japanese businessmen are hilarious on the walk to the train station.

That’s all, for now =)

Hey Gabe, what do you do in your free time?

This.

And while I’ve got pages and pages of these… I still can’t really read anything.  I’m using the “Heisig Method” which means I first learn the meanings of the kanji and how to write them, but not how to read them in Japanese.  Then, after I’ve learned the meanings of 2050 kanji, I will finally start learning how to read them.  If you’ve never studied Japanese this might not make sense so here’s an example: I know that this   議   means “deliberation” but I don’t know how to say “deliberation” in Japanese.  That part will come later.  2050 of those little bastards later.  Another interesting part of this technique is that you make up a story for each character.  This particular one has 2 main parts to it: “words” + “righteousness.”  The story for it is, “At the worst of times, a jury’s deliberation descends into a war of words between competing self-righteous a**holes.”  (I wish I could say I thought of all my stories, but I usually just use the stories from the Heisig book or the online community of Heisig users.)

The hope is that after learning the meanings and how to write all these kanjis, I’ll be able to pick up how to say them much quicker.  It sucks that I’m not able to reap the benefits of my work very much yet, but I’m hoping this method will be faster overall.  I’m at 800 so far… and it was really only in February that I started getting serious (went through 500 this month!).  My goal is to get through all 2050 by May, then I’ll finally get to start learning how to read ish.  We shall see… my head feels pretty full already.  Also, I feel bad cuz all I ever want to talk about with people now is learning kanji.  And its not really an exciting topic for most people.  Oh well… I can have friends in May…

This kid is going places.

My recommendation is that you start at 2:45 and watch til the end, then go back and watch the first half. I now regret not trying harder for this when I was younger… It’s probably impossible for me now at my age =/

Deep Thoughts About Life

So I was listening to Wiz Khalifa the other day.  It came on randomly on shuffle, I swear!  (That’s a lie =/)  Anyway, there was this interlude between songs when someone says in a smooth, laid-back voice:

“Everybody’s fightin to get to the top… but me?  I just wanna smoke and chill, man…”

When I heard this I was like, damn, that perfectly embodies the dilemma I’ve been having lately, as I think about what I want to do when I go back to the States.  **Quick disclaimer, this post is not about wanting to get high all the time… so just hear me out**

My dilemma is this: do I want to live a laid-back life, find a job that’s fulfilling but not too stressful, settle down, start a family, travel to sunny places, occasionally partake in some medicinal relief for my serious chronic back pains… you know, things like that?  A strong part of me finds this life very appealing – it sounds like a happy enough life and I think it would be pretty easy to make happen.  BUT THEN, then the other part of me enters the arena in my head.  This other part comes from the little Gabey who was convinced that he would be in the NBA, or at least win a Nobel Peace Prize or something.  You know, do big things.  And looking back, I love that little me!  Little me had hella ambition and self-discipline (the deadliest of combos!).  Little me would spend hours every day shooting outside and dribbling up and down the block and then come inside to study for hours more.  In fact, I’m pretty sure little me was could beat big me in most of the important contests in life: 1 on 1 basketball, times table speed tests, climbing trees, etc.

But of course, little me had the advantage of not having been exposed to the bigger world and all the people out there who are stronger, better, faster, smarter, richer.  Little me was chugging along, powered by a combination of instinct and what might be classified as one of those white, middle class “you are so special and the world is yours for the taking” type of mindsets.  (Yea I grew up in Kirkland, I’m not trying to hide it…)  Little me didn’t have experiences that wear a person down and turn that person into someone who is consciously or subconsciously resigned to his or her lot in life.

So when I think about the dilemma I have now, I wonder if the part of me that wants to choose the easier, pleasanter, less stressful route is perhaps just being resigned?  I wonder what would happen if I just charged ahead and didn’t think about all those stronger, better, faster, smarter, richer people out there… Hah, maybe it will go similarly to my NBA dream (a lifetime’s worth of hard work resulting in a picture in my high school year book with the Junior Varsity team, an intramural basketball championship, and a career 10 points per game average for the Puget Sound Basketball League Men’s Wednesday Night team named “Chiddy Bang”).  But maybe not?!?!  I may have just watched a few too many Jeremy Lin highlight videos, but I think I can feel a bit of ambition rolling up, fighting against the part of me that just wants to chill.  The self-determination and motivation is starting to kicking in.

So what do I do with all this good momentum?  Well for a long time I was sure that I needed to work in education.  My thinking was that, since the majority of adults in this country seem to be hopelessly lost, we gotta cultivate the brains of the chirren so that in the future, people actually think.  I still have the same love towards education, but lately I’ve been thinking how the education system is just so messed up itself that it might not even be possible to fix it from the inside.  Need more power, mayn…  So now I’m thinking politics is the route I gotta take.  Easy to say, I know.   I must admit I don’t have any idea how to get into politics, and I don’t even really know what kind of job I would want.  Maybe Mayor or something?  Sure, let’s say Mayor.  It’s about time a teacher/social worker runs shit

JEREMY LIN!!!

YES!!!!!!  He’s like a young Taiwanese-American Ginobili in the making.  Watching this had me grinnin from ear to ear.

Sick Week

I’m at home sick all week.  Don’t worry, I feel great already (caught the flu last friday), but its doctors orders.  They’re real serious about this flu stuff here.  It was explained to me (in a stern/ominous voice) that the 9th graders are about to take their HS entrance exams… And if they get sick there’s no way to postpone them, so they’re forced to take them sick… And if they do bad, they can’t get into the high school they want… And if they can’t get into a good HS, they’ll have a lower chance of going to a good college… And if they don’t go to a good college, they probably won’t get a good job… And if they don’t get a good job, they won’t have achieved success/happiness in their lives this time around and they’ll just have to wait until their next life to try to not get sick during their 9th grade tests.  So I can’t even go near the schools while I have any trace of virus in me.  

My company sent out an email about how you’ll have to miss a week of school if you get the flu.  Bad idea on their part – now I have people coming over to hang out in my flu-infested apartment and drink water from my magical week-long-vacation-giving cups.  

So anyway… I’ve had a lot of time on my hands, to do things like mess around on the guitar.  Here’s me pretending that I can cover an Allen Stone song (Another Breakup Song).  P.S. If you don’t know Allen Stone you should check him out… his voice is pretty insane.

 

 

Manga

I’ve recently discovered that Japanese comicbooks (manga) are hilarious. I’m currently reading one called “Beck.” It’s about a junior high kid who I think is eventually going to become a rockstar. The faces are really good at capturing emotions… Like “Calvin and Hobbes” faces good, maybe even better. Sorry, this picture is PG13 (although in Japan this is not out of the norm for a kid’s manga – I like that, they keep it real!). But anyway, this is an example of a good face… cuz this is exactly what my face would look like if I went swimsuit shopping with Nicole =)

Teaching in a Japanese JHS Part II

Ok, so what do I do all day.  Let me give you a quick run through:

On an average day, my schedule will have 4 classes, on a good day 3, and on a bad day 5.  I rotate amongst the 16 English classes in each school I go to, and I have two schools.  One great thing about this job is that there’s absolutely no preparation required whatsoever.  I’ve always wondered what life would be like if you had a job where you didn’t bring any work home (or you didn’t have any homework from school), and now I know!  Apparently, instead of stressing about what you need to do for tomorrow, you’re free to just try to find the funnest thing to do and do that, or take on some side hobby that you never had time for before.  So according to my calculations I was supposed to be the real life Dos Equis man in about two months.  I was going to become amazing at guitar, speak fluent Japanese… accidentally bump into a beautiful Japanese actress on the streets of Tokyo and knock the miniature poodle out of her arms, but then charm her with my wit, smile, and love of dogs (I would lie about liking poodles) so that she invites me to a party that night with rich and famous Tokyo superstars which eventually leads into me quitting my teaching job and becoming a Japanese drama idol… (Nicole would forgive me for that first night after I bought her her first yacht.)  You know, things like that.  Unfortunately, however, it seems that factors like laziness and lack of money also play large roles in determining what I do in my spare time.  And the majority of my free time seems to be spent watching TV or getting drunk with fellow cheap friends outside of convenient stores on one dollar juice-box sake…  Anyway, sorry for that tangent, but back to the schools; if I’m lucky I find out what we’re doing in class that day on the walk to the class with the teacher, if not, I just get to be surprised in class.

For the most part, that’s fine though, because the class is very regimented and there’s not much variation.  At the beginning of each class, the students all have to stand up.  I say, “Good morning everyone!” and they reply, “Good morning Gabe.”  Then I say “How are you?” and they spit off an, “I’m-fine-thank-you-and-you?”  Then we are required to ask the students the 3 golden questions: “What day is it today?” “What’s the date today?” and “How’s the weather?”  Every day.  Pretty boring stuff… Anyone got ideas for how to spruce it up?

The lesson proceeds with the New Words of the day.  I read them, maybe give em some funny voices if I drank coffee that morning.  I try (usually to no avail) to get them to stop pronouncing V’s as B’s (e.g. “TV” becomes “TB” – but this one’s not that bad because when I hear students say they watch TB after school, it warms my heart to think back to the days when I was in Junior High and I too used to go to Taco Bell after school and just stare in wonder).  Another tough one is the sound “see,” which they pronounce as “she.”  Sally sells seashells by the seashore can cause nervous breakdowns in a Japanese student who seriously tries to get it right – i’ve witnessed it. 

After the new words I usually read some dialogue in my silky smooth American voice and have them repeat it, and my job is pretty much done there – I hand it over to the Japanese teacher and maybe help him/her correct the students’ worksheets.  

Ok… So these entries keep on being longer than I want them to be.  Sorry bout that.  But one last thing, just because I gotta keep a promise I made in the last post.  

We recently had an outbreak of the flu (which I participated in as well).  They have this policy here of calling a “Gakkyuu Heisa” (basically the shut-down of a single class for 3 days) when 1/3 of a class is absent because of sickness.  Most classes here are like 35-40 students so this means roughly 13 students must get sick in one class!  We had gakkyuu heisa in 2 classes at one of my schools.  On Wednesday I was in one class that was on the verge (they had about 9 students gone).  Students were dropping like flies.  2 more left during the class.  You’d think it might be a somber hospital-like atmosphere?  No way… it felt like a snowday.  The students were giddy with joy (i’m not gonna lie, the prospect of a cancelled class had me quite giddy as well), checking each others foreheads and yelling at others to fake it.  Battle whoops went round when the phone would ring and the nurses office would ask for the bags of a student who was being sent home.  Fun stuff.  Til you get it… Friday I left work with a 100degree fever and spent the day curled in a ball shivering and sweating.  Shit…

 

For those of you who don’t know my brother…

Well first of all, you should probably get to know him cuz he’s a good person.  And secondly, he sends me funny videos from time to time.  He just showed me these two videos and I thought they would be a good opportunity to make a post that I don’t actually have to write much for.  The first is highly educational with regards to Japan.  The second is not.

1. Ok, so the trains are always packed at rush hour even up here in Hitachi, but (sadly) I’ve never seen anything like this…

2. And I’m sorry for wasting peoples’ time with this one… but her face…

that’s it, I’ll write a real post this weekend… Japanese Schools Part II.  Be ready.  It’s gonna be sick.  Really sick.  (This happens to be a very clever, foreshadowing-pun on my part, but you guys don’t understand it yet… argh… but i’m still gonna leave it there cuz I’m proud of it…)